Unicorns and biofuels: the case against EPA ethanol mandates

Read the humorous blog post explaining the dilemma of having to blend a non-existing product with all gasoline sold in the US:

The Unicorn Analogy

There is a reason I don’t ride a unicorn to work.

It isn’t because it’s too far to work. Nor is it because it rains here in Hawaii nearly every day and I might get wet. It isn’t because the powerful automobile lobby has convinced me that driving a car to work is a better option for me. No, it’s a bit more fundamental than that.

I don’t ride a unicorn to work because unicorns don’t exist.

But imagine the following scenario. A number of companies claim that they are developing unicorns, and in 3 years they will be commercially available. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) thinks “Hey, this is a great idea. It would be a more environmentally friendly method of transport. Let’s force automakers to start selling these unicorns in 3 years. We will base our projections on how many unicorns these unicorn companies say they will produce. After that we will increase the number the automakers must sell in each subsequent year, and then force the automakers to pay up if they don’t meet these quotas.” 

The automakers naturally cry foul and point out that the unicorn industry is hypothetical, and that there is no evidence that they can deliver on their claims. In response, the unicorn companies say “Of course the automakers would say that. They are afraid that we are going to put them out of business.” The government agrees and starts giving taxpayer money to the unicorn companies in order to turn the hypothetical into reality. The unicorn companies start hiring people and issuing press releases indicating just how awesome they are going to be.

Now imagine that the unicorn companies fail to produce the unicorns, and instead of waiving the unicorn mandate the EPA merely reduces the number of unicorns that the automakers must sell. The unicorn companies that over-promised get a free pass on their inflated claims, while the automakers are still penalized for not selling enough non-existent unicorns.

Consumers are at least scientifically literate enough to recognize the absurdity of this scenario. Even if they hate the auto industry, they understand that since unicorns don’t exist it would be unfair to punish the auto industry for not selling them. But replace the auto industry in this scenario with the oil industry, and unicorns with cellulosic ethanol — and this is an accurate description of what the EPA did.

Read the rest of the article at csmonitor.com.